Friday, March 16, 2018

Literally

I drive by the General Dynamics building occasionally because it is located within a mile of where I work. After I saw the following blurb, I am hoping that any of my friends that work there are not impacted by this news:


In a related topic, I received a phone call from a survey company that was interviewing people on behalf of the Iowa Workforce Development department. I used to work at Epley Marketing Services, which was located in North Liberty on Highway 965, from 1994 - 1995, on a part-time basis. I generally would work from 5 - 8 about 3 days a week (usually Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday), interviewing people on behalf of Epley clients. After the interview, my role was to then write a summary of the interview that was then edited by Ann ... it's funny, but I don't remember her last name, but she was a very good editor . . . before being presented to the client. All that is to say, when I get a phone call from a survey company, I typically never hang up. In fact, I consider myself overly nice to anyone that calls our house, even if it's a student from Mount Mercy College (now Mount Mercy University) which is where I graduated from in May 1992. The idea that I am courteous to someone from my Alma Mater is noteworthy because when they call, it's usually to ask for a donation to help the institution. Several years ago, I ceased donating to the institution for a simple reason. A Catholic college invited a pro-choice (pro-killing babies in the womb) speaker for commencement. I thought that was wrong. I thought the invitation should not have been extended for commencement. That said, if the institution wants to invite someone with a pro-choice insanity diagnosis on-campus so that there can be a civil discussion about abortion, great. I think it's awesome to have people with opposing viewpoints get in the same room and try to come to an understanding of the other person's perspective as a way to find a consensus.

Back to last night and my phone call, I talked to the woman on the other end for about 15 minutes. She asked me about
  • how long I've worked where I work, 
  • if I was looking to leave my employer (ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!), 
  • why I left my previous position (My position was eliminated... Stupidly!), 
  • if I thought there was a specific training or education I needed in order to advance (I thought this was an interesting question as I really like what I do and don't really want to do anything else), 
  • salary & income (I never reveal that over the phone or to anyone), 
  • my education
  • where I would start looking for a job if I were seeking one (Corridorcareers.com, indeed.com, dice.com were the sites I think I would start with in addition to the other local company websites I have in my browser favorites from January 2016's job search)
  • what titles I held before my current one 
    • (Senior Technical Writer (Pearson), 
    • Senior Technical Writer (unnamed hellhole in southern Iowa), 
    • Technical Writer (Quintrex), 
    • Technical Writer (Jordan Systems)
    • Documentation Specialist (NDP).
Those were the memorable topics we discussed. It was a fun phone call because I always welcome the opportunity to analyze where I have been in my life.

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